Dwarf Hunting
by Gratiae
Summary: "Losing a game is heartbreaking. Losing your sense of excellence or worth is a tragedy." - Joe Paterno


**Disclaimer: I do not own Middle-earth.**

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"One, two, three," Fíli stood facing the tree truck with his hands over his eyes while he counted to then so his brother and his friends could hide. His hound pup Axe was circling the clearing with his tail wagging happily. Kíli, who didn't quite yet understand the concept of the game was to be be quiet and not be found, was giggling loudly somewhere to Fíli's left. He'd be easy to find. Too easy. Finding five-year-old Kíli would be downright boring. A flash of wavy black hair caught the his eye as Fíli peaked between his fingers. The black hair and the girl it belonged to darted around a tree.

He'd forgotten to keep counting!

"Three, four, five, six," Fíli started again, forgetting exactly where he'd stopped. Kíli giggled again and Fíli rolled his eyes. "Seven, eight, nine, ten! Fee-fi-fo-fum! You best be gone for here I come! Smaug is out! Smaug is big! Smaug will find out where you hid!" Fíli let out the fiercest roar he could summon as he turned away from the tree and stomped around the forested area behind the hall in which they lived, pretending to breath fire.

Kíli gasped in fright and Fíli did his best to ignore him. He was ruining the game! Kíli was too little play big kid games like this, but Uncle Thorin said he had to let Kíli play with them. Fíli stamped around the ground, breathing fire and roaring with every step and causing Axe to bark and jump with him, as he looked for his friends hiding places. Kíli's was the most obvious. Fíli had spotted him hidden beneath Uncle's bench the second he turned around. It'd be best to get Kíli first and get him out of the way. The real fun began after Kíli was out of the way.

"I smell Dwarf!" Fíli bellowed, sniffing the air and stomping closer to Kíli's hiding place. He pretended to look around, making a show of looking in wrong places before giving a giant roar and pulling Kíli out from under the bench by his fluffy brown beard.

"OW!" Kíli howled furiously as he kicked at his brother. "NOT FAIR!"

"You hid bad and I found good. Smaug should eat you, yes he should!" Fíli chanted the memorized phrase as he dragged Kíli towards the centre of their play area where a large circle had been drawn in the dirt. "I'll let you live for now, yes sir, for I smell Dwarf tucked in the fir! Here you'll stay and here you'll rot. You're my treasure, you were caught!"

"IT'S NOT FAIR!" Kíli whined at the top of his lungs. "YOU ALWAYS GET ME FIRST! I NEVER GET TO BE SMAUG!"

"Well, you shouldn't hid in - AXE, SIT! - you shouldn't hid in plain sight! If you hide right where Smaug can see you, you'll get picked off every time!" Fíli told him in a curt, annoyed tone as he turned to walk away, ready to find and capture his next prey. "One is down, three to go! Run now from your fiery foe! If Smaug does catch you, you will die and be his supper's Dwarven pie!"

A faint rustle somewhere in the trees behind him caught his attention and Fíli turned in that direction, letting out another roar that made the pouting Kíli shake. Commanding the now sitting dog to stay, Fíli stood very still and waited for the noise to happen again. When he heard a rustling a second time, Fíli crept forward, walking on tip-toe and being careful not to step on a single leaf or twig. Silently, he weaved his way through the trees and brush, stopping occasionally to listen for the rustling as his target tried to better his hiding spot.

Hoag was not the smartest of the Dwarf children Fíli and Kíli were allowed to play with nor the most graceful and he made too much noise. But at least he hid better than Kíli. Fíli saw the boys round backside up in the air as he crawled around on the ground, occasionally peaking up to check for Fíli, but he was looking in the wrong direction. One step at a time, Fíli crept up on Hoag, until he was not a foot and a half behind him. Raising his foot, Fíli kicked the big, round target to send the boy sprawling face first into the dirt.

"You were found where you lay hid, you have lost and win I did!" Fíli called for all to hear as he hauled Hoag through the tree by his feet. Fíli wiped his brow as he finally managed to get the heavy Hoag into the circle with Kíli in the centre of the clearing. "In the circle with you now! You won't like it when I chow! For now you're safe as I have seen more Dwarves squat hidden in the trees!"

Taking a deep breath, Fíli narrowed his eyes and looked around the clearing at the trees. His last two friends were clever and the only sound other than Kíli's sniffling were the birds high in the trees. "Two are found and two still free, but I shall catch them as they flee! Watch your step for if you fail, you'll wind up in Smaug's dinner pail!"

Omber liked to hide in the bright pink patch of Mountain Laurels found north of the clearing, but the last time he'd hid there, he'd been bitten by a mole that he swore up and down was the size of Fíli and Kíli's Uncle Thorin. He wouldn't be there now. Omber would find a new hiding place this time. South, Fíli decided, far away from the Mountain Laurels, and turned around to head in that direction.

Fíli moved very slowly and quietly. He looked for a trail, snapped twigs or a cracked leaf, a slight indention from Omber's boot. Omber would not be moving. Omber's tactic was always to find to best possible hiding place and not make a single sound or movement.

Fíli had been looking for quiet some time before he spotted the broken twig in the centre of the pathway between two trees. Fíli squatted behind the tree on the right and peered around to search for a hiding place Omber might have chosen. There was a red chokeberry bush three yards away. Fíli crept silently towards the chokeberry bush and, at the last possible second, jumped out and attempted to catch thin air. Omber wasn't hiding in the chokeberry bush.

Fíli spat a word that Uncle Thorin would have skinned him for saying and sat down on the ground to think. Omber had to be in this end of the clearing. He would want to stay as far away from his mole as possible, but they weren't allowed to go past the briar patch that circled their play area. The holly thicket popped into his mind and Fíli stood. The holly thicket was worth a check; it could hide three Fíli's and have enough room left over for Axe.

Looking around, Fíli tried to decide a plan of attack. The holly thicket were southwest of where Fíli currently stood, a good trek through the underbrush and practically impossible to sneak up upon with being noticed. In fact, Fíli had won many a game of Dwarf Hunting by hiding in the thicket. It would be foolish to try and attack the thicket from the ground. By the time he got there, Omber would have heard him coming and scampered from his hiding place to find another.

Fíli scaled the closest tree with limbs low enough for Fíli to hoist himself upon. The passage was much longer than had he gone by ground as he made his way from branch to branch, crossing the forest like a sloth. Ten minutes later, Fíli looked down from the trees, right into the heart of the holly thicket. Omber lay flat on his stomach, drawing figures in the dirt.

If he dropped, Fíli would be cut by the thicket's thorns, but it would be fun to catch Omber that way. The look on Omber's face would be priceless. Fíli scooted as close to Omber as he could get without letting himself land on top of him and then jumped. The thorns of the holly thicket scratched his clothing and his hands and face and Omber screamed a high pitched scream that sent birds flying from the pines around them. Fíli landed on his bottom with a thud and both boys sat starring at each other for a minute, Omber petrified and Fíli grinning broadly.

"That place was -"

Omber took off crawling through the thicket as Fíli began his victorious chant and Fíli had to scramble to his feet. Fíli chased his friend, pushing his way through the branches just a few yards behind Omber. Omber freed himself from the plant first and flew northwards at a sprint. Fíli fought the holly thicket as his friend put more and more distance between them. Omber stumbled over a tree root as Fíli cleared the plant and starting sprinting after his friend. Omber was running again, but Fíli had always been the faster of the two and kept closing ground. The earth disappeared beneath Fíli's feet as he got closer and closer to Omber and before he lunged. He caught Omber around the knees and tackled his friend to the ground, keeping a firm grip on his knees as they fell.

"That place was seen and you were caught, now I'll keep you locked in knots!" Fíli cried, holding tight on Omber. The two struggled a bit longer, before Omber gave himself up as caught and let Fíli drag him up off the ground. Fíli didn't let go of Omber's arm as they trekked back to their clearing with the circle. As soon as they came into view, Axe began barking and jumping, happy to see Fíli again. Omber tried to drag himself out of Fíli's grip as they reached the circle, but Fíli thrust him into it before he could escape.

"In with your friends, there you go! I'll tie you up by your toe! Your life lives on until I find the tasty Dwarf I left behind!" Fíli dropped to the ground and took a moment to catch his breath properly. Catching Omber was hard. Now... where would he start to search for Lempi? Lempi would be the hardest of his friends to catch and Fíli relished the challenge.

Fíli stood, finally, and rotated in a slow circle, trying to pick a direction. Where would he go if he were Lempi? The question was not an easy one to answer, but he eventually decided on going east, towards Thorin's Halls. "Three are mine and soon shall be the final Dwarf meant just for me! Careful, Dwarf, if you I spot, you'll be cooked next in Smaug's pot!"

Fíli looked for signs of Lempi passing through the space as he walked - anything that would indicate she had been there. After several minutes walk, Fíli noticed a shoe print turning left. Then a broken twig and a slight gap of disturbed bushes. The path was hard to find and difficult to follow, but Fíli followed it determinedly, losing the path momentarily only to find it again.

Lempi's tracks led him all through the forest and Fíli felt he was walking in circles. Had the girl ever stopped walking? Moodily, Fíli kicked his foot out at a stone in front of him and kept trudging along. The stone rolled, hopping up when it hit the root of a four hundred foot conifer. Fíli caught the stone and sent it hurling at nothing. He heard it hit something is a dull thud before falling to the floor. Fíli kept his eyes searching for signs that Lempi had come through when the rock he had through flew back at him and left a mark on his cheek.

"Lempi!" Fíli shouted her name into the trees, but nothing called back. Maybe it wasn't his rock. All sorts of things lived in this forest. It might have been any number of animals playing with any number of pebbles they picked up off the ground.

There! Another footprint half hidden beneath dislodged leaves. Fíli followed it eagerly, speeding up as he followed Lempi's careless trail. She was running. He was close and she was running! He was running now, faster and faster, his feet stumbling over roots and fallen branches in his haste. He ran until he ran straight into a small, cleared patch. The trail was gone. Nothing left for him to follow.

Fíli huffed and turned in a circle. Left, or maybe right. South or west or east or north. She could be anywhere. He'd fallen for her stupid fake trail. Stupid fake trail by a stupid girl. They shouldn't even let girls play. They ruined so many -

All the air knocked from Fíli's lungs and something heavy fell onto his shoulders with great speed and his knees buckled beneath him. The ground rushed to meet him and Fíli was crushed between the hard floor and the hefty weight atop him.

"Gotchya!" Lempi shouted, pinning Fíli to the dirt, her pointy knees digging into the backs his thighs and her hands attempting to wrestle his wrists down as her elbows came down hard on his arms. Fíli spat dirt and leaves and pine as his face was shoved into the ground repeatedly as they struggled. Fíli almost had the upper hand before Lempi bit down, hard, on his ear and pulled the back of his long, blond hair.

"Stop resisting!" She mumbled awkwardly around a mouthful of flesh and Fíli let out a squawk of pain.

"I yield!" Fíli ripped his arm from her grasp and tried to push her away from his ear. "I yield! You win!"

"YES!" Lempi crowed, throwing her hands in the air and her flowing red sleeves showed places where they had been torn in the trees. She grabbed him again by the arms as she stood and pulled her captive to his feet, happily chanting her victory song as she dragged him back to the centre of their game.

"Smaug is dead! Smaug is naught! Let's repair all he has wrought!" Lempi called, her voice ringing on the rhyme. Right now, Fíli hated her more than anything. Girls like Lempi and little babies like Kíli should not be made to play with the big boys. They fouled up every game they joined in. Now he had to let this stupid girl drag him back in front of his friends like he was her little rag doll to be kicked through the dirt!

"Come my friends, the dragon's dead! No need to sit and hide your head! Dance on his body, dance on his grave. Raise my statue, big and brave!"

They were close to the circle now and Fíli had the distinct desire to reach out and grab a fist full of Lempi's black hair and pull her backwards, so he could turn the tables on her and drag her back to the circle as his prisoner. Instead, Fíli scowled even harder and dug his heels in, making Lempi fight for every inch she dragged him.

"Forever say this was the day! Today all danger is at bay!" Lempi kept readjusting her grip and dragging him further and further. No matter the protest he put up, Lempi's victory singing never grew annoyed or strained. She kept dragging him along like she was taking home a particularly good cake to her father. "Today, tell all, our villain did fall and Lempi the Valiant has saved one and all!"

Fíli hated that part. He hadn't fallen! He'd been knocked and there was a big difference. How was he supposed to know she would fall out of the sky just the way he had done to Omber? Girls weren't supposed to climb trees. Girls weren't supposed to play Dwarf Hunting. Girls were supposed to stay indoors and sew things or make food for the men when they came home. And they certainly weren't supposed to ruin boys games by winning them.

"Smaug is naught! Let's repair all he has wrought!"

She was on the third repetition of the awful song and Fíli wanted to shove acorns into her mouth until her mouth was too full to talk. Then he'd kick her down the hill and he'd still be Smaug!

"What's going on here?" Thorin Oakenshin's voice boomed out over the clearance as the three boys in the circle cheered at the sight of Lempi with a captive Fíli. The cheer died as quickly as it started and the five children stared at Thorin with wide eyes. Even Axe laid down submissively, with his head down over his paws and his eyes averted. No one spoke as Thorin looked from one child to another, his eyes narrow and so angry the normally grey eyes were nearly black.

"Fíli!" Thorin bellowed and Fíli stepped forward reluctantly. "Tell me what is happening here. Tell it quick and tell it true, boy."

"Just a game, Uncle."

"What game," Thorin demanded and Fíli knew that his uncle knew exactly which game they had been playing. He had to have heard the victory song as he came to fetch them out of the make-believe games to wash up for supper. Fíli whispered the name of the game so softly that not even he could hear his words. "Speak up."

"Dwarf Hunting," Fíli repeated with a gulp. They had been absolutely forbidden to play this game.

"Dwarf Hunting," Thorin echoed softly, his eyebrows raised and looking at Fíli. "You were playing at Dwarf Hunting, Nephew?"

"Yes, sir."

"You with dwarf hunting is fun, then? It's a game?" Thorin asked, his voice still calm with that edge of fury waiting right below. "From the way Lempi was singing, you must have been Smaug this game. You think that Smaug is a joke?" Thorin's voice rose. "You think what Smaug did to our home, to our people, was something to make a game of?"

He was shouting now and Kíli was cowering behind Hoag as his uncle reeled into his brother. Fíli braced himself.

"Smaug is no game! Smaug took our home, Boy. He killed our people! Do you like living out here?" Thorin gestured back towards Thorin's Halls and Fíli knew that, while the answer on his tongue was yes, he did like living in Ered Luin, that his answer was not the correct one. "Do you like being exhaled from Erebor!"

"No, Sir."

"Smaug sits upon our treasure in our home and you turn his desolation into a child's game with chants and cheers," Thorin looked disgusted and Fíli felt hot tears prick at his eyes. He would not cry in front of his uncle. He was a man and men did not cry. "You were expressly told to never play this game again, were you not? I would expect this insolent disobedience from Kíli, but not from you, Fíli."

"I'm sorry, Uncle. I didn't -"

"You are no nephew of mine," Thorin shook his head. "Get inside. All of you."

There was a frantic scamper of little feet as Kíli, Hoag, Omber and Lempi tore to get inside as quickly as possible. Fíli dragged his feet, rubbing the back of his hand under his eyes when he was absolutely sure his uncle wasn't looking. Axe walked beside him, nudging Fíli's shoulder with his nose. He stopped at the door to the hall, turning to see Thorin still standing in the centre of the clearing.

"I'm truly sorry, Uncle."

"Go to your room, Fíli.

Fíli nodded, his head down and his little shoulder's slumped, and walked down the long passage to the bedroom he shared with his brother. Kíli was already curled up in his crib, his thumb stuck in his mouth and the tatty stuffed hound in a death grip. Fíli sat down on his bed and stared at his feet. Toys littered their floor, most of them made by their third cousin Balin, but a few had been made for them by Thorin and those were the ones they treasured most.

Bending down, Fíli picked up his favourite toy, a delicately carved Mûmakil. He looked at the four dainty tusks and the raised trunk. Thorin had made it for him for his name day. Fíli tucked the toy into his rucksack and went to his dresser and solemnly pulled open the top drawer.

"What are you doing?" Kíli asked around the thumb in his mouth and hugged his hound impossibly tighter as Fíli placed clothing in his sack.

"Uncle doesn't want me," Fíli told his younger brother, wishing he could be alone. He closed the top drawer and opened the second, taking socks and long-johns and stuffing them in with the rest. "So I'm leaving. I'll make my own way."

"Take me with you," Kíli rolled out of bed, dragging his hound behind him by the ear, and walked to Fíli by the dresser.

"No, Kíli. Uncle still wants you," Fíli shook his head. "You stay here."

"I don't want to be here without you," Kíli reached for his hand and Fíli reluctantly took the hand with the slobber-covered thumb.

"You'll be okay. You'll be here with Muma and Grá."

"But -"

"No, Kíli!" Axe raised his head at Fíli's outburst and Kíli cowered. "I'm sorry, Kíli. I didn't mean to yell. But you have to stay here."

Kíli didn't speak. He dragged his feet and his house back to his crib and climbed in, turning away from his brother to face the wall.

"Kíli, I'm sorry." Kíli didn't move. Fíli sighed. He finished packing his sack and called Axe as he walked to the door. "Goodbye, Kíli."

Fíli closed the door after waiting for a response that didn't come. He and Axe slunk through the hall, hiding once from old Grá, who was picking up the toys they had left on the hearth rug in the great hall. They slipped quietly through the door that exited to the streets from the kitchens. Fíli adjusted his rucksack over his shoulder and the pair started walking. He walked until his feel hurt and decided to stop for a while, hidden behind the Brokki the baker's stall. He hadn't been there more than five minutes before a littlin toddled back and sat down next to him.

"Hi!" The girl couldn't be more than two. Her curly golden hair sat in a mop on her head, the clips that had once controlled having long been lost, and her beard was nothing more that wisps of fluff on her cheeks. "Whatchya doooooooing?"

"Sitting," Fíli said.

"Want a biscuit?" The littlin offered a broken gingersnap biscuit from the pocket of her frock. "My Pupa makes the bestest biscuits."

"Thank you," Fíli accepted the biscuit and took a bite. "It's good."

"Why are you sitting here?"

"My feet hurt."

"Why?"

"Because I was walking."

"Why?"

"Because I was."

"What's your hound's name?"

"Axe."

"My brother Eífe has a hound named Blouk."

Fíli nodded and finished the biscuit, wiping his hands on the trousers. The girl was off talking about her brother's hound without caring if he was even listening. He listened to her babble to what felt like an age before she stopped at the sound of what must have been her name.

"Aífe! Aífe, where'd you get off too, littlin?"

"Here, Pupa!"

Brokki the Baker rounded the stall and picked up his daughter, who had automatically raised her arms to him expectantly. Brokki studied Fíli, like he knew the boy's face but couldn't quite place where he knew it from. Fíli's stomach knotted. What is Brokki took him back to Thorin's home?

"What are you doing, lad?"

"Hide and seek," Fíli said automatically, saying the first thing that came to mind. "My friends and I are playing hide and seek. So far I'm winning."

Brokki laughed and nodded. "Well, make sure you win before it gets too dark. Littlins shouldn't be out after dark."

Fíli bit back a response to being called a littlin and nodded. "I will."

"C'mon, Aífe. Your muma's got supper on the table by now."

"Lamb?" Aífe asked hopefully.

"Maybe."

Their conversation disappeared into the babble of Dwarves and Men and Fíli felt suddenly very alone as he hugged Axe's neck. He wondered what Grá had made them for supper and if Muma missed him yet. He wondered if Uncle had already rid the hall of his things and sat at the supper table glad that Fíli was not there.

The cold of the mountain air soon seeped through his knit and wool and Fíli sat shivering and huddled with Axe, who didn't seem to understand why they could not go home to his nice bed on the hearth rug where the roaring fire would warm his hide. Fíli listened as parents herded their littlins home and felt a prickling in his eyes as his stomach growled. He wanted to go home. He wanted to sit at the supper table to Uncle's right and eat roasted lamb and potatoes and listen to Uncle talk and tell stories.

But he couldn't go home. Uncle didn't want him. Uncle said he wasn't his nephew anymore.

Fíli buried his face in Axe's neck and cried as softly as he could, muffling the shameful noises with the sleeve of his jacket. Axe licked at Fíli's face as best he could and Fíli sniffed. Time passed and Fíli's tears came to a slow, exhausted stop. He curled on his side with Axe as his pillow and closed his eyes.

Axe perked up suddenly and jumped to his feet, dropping Fíli to the ground. He barked once and Fíli looked around for what might have caught Axe's attention. There was shouting further down the street, but Fíli couldn't hear what the called words were. They were getting closer, though, headed towards him and Axe disappeared between the empty Baker's stall and the stall that usually contained a variety of vegetables. Fíli stayed huddled where he was, listening to try and hear the words.

"Fíli!"

That was Uncle's voice! Fíli straightened in excitement and then curled himself around his knees. Uncle would be so mad when he found him.

"Fíli! Fíli, where are you?" Thorin's voice was loud and commanding, but it didn't sound quite as it usually did to Fíli's ears. "Axe! Axe, where's Fíli? Good hound, good hound."

Axe reappeared between the two stalls, his tail wagging furiously, and Thorin appeared two steps behind him.

"Fíli," Thorin let out a heavy breath and hurried over to where Fíli cowered. But instead of the fury Fíli expected, Thorin picked him up and held him tightly. "You're safe. Mahal is good."

Fíli threw his arms around his uncle's neck and held on as he started crying again. "I'm sorry, Uncle! I'm sorry! I'll never be bad again, I promise, just let me come home! Please, Uncle, I want to come home!"

"Why could you not come home?" Thorin asked, stroking the boy's back. "You can always come home, Fíli. I insist that you always come home."

"You said - you said-"

The whole story came tumbling out in a mouthful of hiccups and tears and Thorin stayed quiet until Fíli had fallen quiet again.

"I didn't mean that you had to leave, Fíli," Thorin told him, picking up Fíli's pack and swinging it over his shoulder. "I never want you to leave, Son. I was angry that you disobeyed me and I said what I did not mean. I am sorry, Fíli."

"Sorry?" Fíli repeated the word in shock. He'd never heard his uncle apologize to anyone.

"Yes, I'm sorry," Thorin gently rocked from foot to foot and Fíli found the rhythm comforting and he relaxed fully against his uncle, resting his head on the fur of his coat. "You scared me, Fíli. Do you understand that?"

"But you're never scared," Fíli said into the soft fur.

"I was today and the day Kíli fell into the river. And the day you two hid from me because you broke the statue."

"But you're the bravest ever," Fíli, who was far too old to do so, stuck his thumb into his mouth and cuddled closer to his uncle as they started making their way down the street towards home.

"I thought I lost you tonight, Fíli. There is nothing more scary than that."

"Not even Smaug?"

"Not even Smaug."

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**A/N:**

**I HAVE SO MANY FEELS UGH.**

**This is a present for my bestie Ren Xoxo, I love you, Ren, I finished it.**

**I'm legit proud of the rhymes I came up with for the game. So proud. You have no idea. Usually, I'm not very good at that stuff. But I love them. Okay. I have to go to work now. I don't want to. But I have to.**

**Thanks for reading, I hope you liked it and, please, tell me what you think - good or bad!**

**HAPPY DWARF HUNTING.**

**Love, Thalia**


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